Letter: about electronic voting:

Gail GreenblattPonte Vedra Beach

Published Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Editor: I am surprised and disappointed that Gov. Jeb Bush continues to refuse to address the concerns of voting citizens and I wonder why this is the case. Voters, congressmen, attorneys, all have been asking for a paper trail/paper ballots for many, many months. There was ample time for Florida's governor to address their concerns. Voter confidence, the sanctity of one of the main bedrocks of our democracy, is not a partisan issue. After the 2000 election, voter confidence was eroded as attested to by the GOP flyer which urged party members in Florida to vote via absentee ballot rather than on the electronic machines. Note the following:

Detailed records of touch screen votes were erased in Miami-Dade.

Christian Science Monitor reported on a review of electronic voting triggered by the State of Maryland. The "system contains considerable security risks that cause moderate to severe disruption in an election."

Fairfax County Virginia Voters watched as the "x" they had placed next to their candidate was recorded for the opponent.

Ohio secretary of state halted use of electronic voting machines for the 2004 general Election because two comprehensive examinations identified 57 potential security risks with the electronic machines' software & hardware.

King County Washington. One of the main designers of its election management computer system was a convicted felon who embezzled $465,361.

A. Rubin of Johns Hopkins and three scientists produced a devastating 23-page expos of voter software. Two more damaging technical studies followed in Ohio.

An exercise to break the software code was staged in Maryland. Four of the eight computer scientists had worked at the National Security Agency and the team director was senior technical director for NSA. The team concluded "a voter can be deceived into thinking he is voting for a candidate but, in fact, the software is recording the vote for another candidate." This software was from one of the manufacturers selling equipment to counties and states in the US.

Electronic machines are programmed by unidentified persons who may or may not have had a background check.

The individuals involved in the voting process will also include temporary election workers, thousands of them, who are probably also without background checks.

"Independent" certification of these machines is paid for by the manufacturers whose equipment is being tested.

Without a paper trail, votes will be unverifiable, unauditable and unrecountable.

Simply having computers spit out second printouts is "not a recount."

Secretary of State Blackwell ruled that because of unsolved security problems, Ohio will not use paperless DREs in November.

We should not accept that it is too late to change the situation. Our elected officials have had four years to address the issue. If they are "in a corner," they are responsible for putting themselves there.

Their actions or inactions should not be accepted as an excuse for the consequences of their decisions and actions.